EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL

Dan Gilbert talks about entrepreneurship and urban revival

There's a lot to chew on in this TechCrunch.com interview with Cavaliers owner/Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert about entrepreneurship and urban revival.

It's a long interview, focused primarily on Mr. Gilbert's business efforts in Detroit. But it has significant resonance for Cleveland, where one of Mr. Gilbert's ventures, startup accelerator Bizdom, is trying to replicate some of the success it has had in the Motor City. Quicken Loans also has become a major job generator in downtown Detroit.

Here are some of the highlights of Mr. Gilbert's comments:

“I think it's pretty clear to everybody (that people in the 20s and 30s) want to be in urban core, so they just ditch Michigan. When you sit around tables and you listen to people talk about their relatives or their kids or their grand kids or their friends or their friends' kids, they say 'This one is moving to Chicago, this one is moving to New York, this one is moving to San Francisco.' If we're going to keep growing and keep doing the kinds of things we do, we're Quicken Loans, we're a really technology company that happens to do loans.”

“(Startups in Detroit) can get some great people, some hardworking, Midwest people who first of all tend to be loyal here; they just do. … (There) is just less competition for the talent, and so you have a better chance and maybe keeping the same group of people with you for a long period of time. And it's exciting and there are startups happening.”

“Through Detroit Venture Partners and Rockbridge (a private equity firm) we try to tap into the operational expertise of our business. … We really try to look at it as one company, one business, one family where people can tap in and either recruit other people maybe to come over and help in or even for short periods of time. For instance, we're even going to put what we call our mousetrap. People who just process excellence, we're going to put them in the Casino in Cleveland for a period of time to help them. There's going to be two or three people go over there for 90 days just to help them set-up their process excellence.”

“One of the figures I give to people here is that you pay less per square foot for the building than the average rental rate is in New York for a year. So you think about that difference. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying, 'Hey, there's a significant advantage' even in Cleveland where we're active, the real estate prices didn't decline like in Detroit.

Get it done

Comments from two economic experts from KeyCorp in Cleveland underscore what's at stake in the fiscal cliff negotiations.

This MarketWatch.com story notes that the Nasdaq Composite index just scored its first positive November since 2009, even as the political rhetoric over the budget continued with little obvious progress toward a deal.

“I don't think there is a politician out there that wants on their watch an adverse economic outcome. But they could wait for the 11th hour,” said Nick Raich, director of Key Private Bank in Cleveland, of the possible repercussions of not reaching an agreement to block billions in automatic spending cuts and tax increases early next year.

“Our base case is there will be some sort of solution, but it may not occur by or on Dec. 31, so the market is not pricing completely going off the cliff, but more of a roll down the hill,” Mr. Raich added.

This Bloomberg story says the world economy “has recovered to its strongest level in 18 months as China's stimulus measures bolster growth and the U.S. seeks to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, a Bloomberg Global Poll of investors showed.”

One of those polled was Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Kay Private Bank.

“With so much monetary stimulus around the world, we've taken the brakes off the global economy,” he told Bloomberg. “It should mean improved growth into next year. Officials in Europe and in the U.S. seem to realize that we're on the precipice of some pretty negative outcomes if they don't do something to find better solutions.”

This and that

Taking it slow: Foreclosures in Ohio take an average of 571 days to complete, making it the ninth-slowest state in the country, according to this story from MarketWatch.com, based on data from RealtyTrac.

Business-friendly Texas will get you through the foreclosure process faster than any other state. It takes only 97 days, on average, to complete a foreclosure there.

Move along:The New York Timesprofiles Dr. Michael Roizen, the chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic, and declares he's “at the forefront of the upright workers movement.”

That “movement,” The Times says, “is not a union uprising, but a reference to the growing numbers of office workers who are rising from their chairs to stand, even walk, for health reasons.” (Check out this story about Dr. Roizen, by Crain's Dan Shingler, from January 2011.)

Dr. Roizen walks the walk, so to speak. He “typically works at a treadmill desk for hours a day” and follows a 10,000 steps-a-day regimen for better health, The Times says.

“For me, this setup is a way around inactivity,” he says. Dr. Roizen has “found he can effectively handle conference calls while walking at 3.3 miles per hour, typing to reply to e-mails at 1.8 mph, and more serious writing at 1.7 mph.”

Game on: Worried when you see your kid playing video games more than, say, reading books? Maybe you shouldn't be.

“Over the last few years, there's been a lot of research done on the social, emotional, mental and physical benefits of gaming, and the results may surprise you: video games actually have considerable real-world benefits,” USA Today reports.

The newspaper cites data from the Entertainment Software Association that finds 62% of gamers play games with others, either in-person or online. These social games “teach kids leadership skills, including delegating responsibility, and working effectively as a team,” according to the story.

And research from Ohio State University “finds that players who engage in cooperative play in games show increased cooperative behavior,” the newspaper reports.

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